Ludhiana, September 9
As Indian players were unable to consistently perform in football about 26 foreign players played on behalf of 10 club teams in the 29th Hero Federation Cup Football Tournament being played here. Foreign players playing along with Indians for a few clubs are of the view that the reason behind poor quality football in this part of the world was that natives lack consistency in their game. As per norms not more than three players could be retained in a team.

Brazilian Jose R. Barretto, playing for Mohun Bagan, said: “Indian players lack consistency except Bhaichung Bhutia”.

Besides Barretto, Peter Odafe (Nigeria) and Mohammed Gafari are with Mohun Bagan. East Bengal has Majekodunmi Bolaji (Nigeria), Edmilson Marques (Brazil) and Abdul Samed while Sporting Clube de Goa has hired Bonaface Ambani (Kenya), Olushola Wahab Ogundare and Nicholas Muyoti.

The Salgaocar Sports Club utilizes the services of Baba Tunde Badmus, Bolwe Mputu and Felix Chimaokwu and the HAL Sports Club of Alesh Shamaki and Joseph Femi Adeola.

Dempo has Chidi Edeh, Ranty Martins, both from Nigeria and Roberto Da Silva (Brazil), while JCT Phagwara keeps Edurado Da Silva Escobar, Marcos Alexandro Pereira and Julius Akpele.

Chirag United has Maduako Francis, Luis Nigi Ebami and T. Sunday Wrobeh and Churchill Brother Odafe Onyeka Okolie and Stephen N. Mbanyam. Vasco has only one Mathew Odje.

However, Nigerian and Brazilian players topped the list of foreigners playing for the Indian clubs. Most of them come here to play during off-season and earn money.

Barretto said it was off season in Brazil as far as football was concerned thus he decided to come and play in India. When asked to compare Indian clubs with the Africans ones he replied that Indian clubs were of second division and Africans were equivalent to the European clubs.

Young Brazilian Edurado Da Silva Escobar is said to be a prized player for favourite JCT Phagwara. His inclusion has added muscles to the team. Officials of the Mill Men’s team utilized another Brazilian player Marcos Priera to rope in Escobar the team.

The affable young Brazilian striker had mixed up with his new fellow players with ease although language remains a barrier. He does not know English. In response to a question chuckling Escobar shakes his hand and head in negative.

Almost all clubs have foreign players and sometime they vie with one other for acquiring a player. However, only the well off Clubs are able to hire players while some teams could not do so for technical reasons.

Army XI, ONGC, VIVA, Air India and Mohammedan Sporting Club are the teams which do not have any foreign player.

The players prefer eating strictly to the prescribed diet. The mouth watering Punjabi delicacies like roasted chicken and butter chicken are a big no-no despite temptations.

Ludhiana, September 9
One of the waiters of the Lodhi club has alleged that a bar-secretary of the club had slapped him while he was drunk yesterday night when the former asked him to clear the bill. The waiter said the bar-secretary “abused and slapped me”since another bill was also pending and I had asked him to clear it in front of his guests.

According to sources, after the incident, all waiters gathered outside the lobby and refused to work till the matter was sorted out. Two more parties were also going on inside the club premises. The waiters resumed their duty only when a few of the executives and other members assured them that they would be given a patient hearing today morning.

One of the witnesses, a club member, disclosed that the waiter had asked the bar-secretary to clear the bill in front of his guests. The secretary might have felt humiliated and abused the waiter. “Obviously, the waiter objected to his rude behaviour. In a fit of rage, the office-bearer slapped him (the waiter) in front of a few members”, he added.

When contacted, the bar-secretary refuted all allegations levelled against him and said the bill was just of Rs 49, which he had already paid. The waiter was irritating him for footing the bill for the second time. He said no other bill was pending and waiter had created “indiscipline”.

Manoj Gupta, general secretary of the club, said the club members were not happy with the catering of the present mess-contractor Goldy. “Even the deputy commissioner, the club’s president, had said he was not satisfied with the food being served in the club. The executive had planned to give the contract to someone better. The contractor has blown-up the entire issue out of proportion “, said Manoj Gupta adding that the executive had already served a show-cause notice to the contractor today for creating indiscipline in the club and going to the press.

Meanwhile, deputy commissioner Sumer Singh Gurjar said he was not aware of the incident. I just told the mess contractor to improve the quality of the food served, he added.

Ludhiana, September 9
Ludhiana beat Minor Districts Zone B (Ropar) on the basis of their first innings lead in the third match of the Punjab State Inter-District Cricket Tournament for Katoch Shield played at the Satish Chander Dhawan Government College for boys ground here yesterday.

Minor Districts XI, in their first innings were all out for 126 runs in 66 overs. Amarinder was the top scorer who made 44 runs. Hitesh and Deepak Gatta contributed 20 and 15 runs, respectively.

For Ludhiana, Karan Goel sent down 18 overs and took five wickets for 35 runs. Gagandeep Dhand captured two wickets for 28 runs while Sunny Kumar and Arun Sharma took one wicket each.

In reply, Ludhiana declared their first innings at 187 for 5 after 53 overs. Bharat Malhotra scored 40 runs, followed by Geetnansh Khera (36), Gaurav Marwaha (34) and Rahil Nanda (29 n.o).

For the visitors, Sukhdev Bhatti and Arminder claimed two wickets each for 29 and 55 runs, respectively. Deepak scalped one victim for 53 runs.

In their second innings, Minor Districts were 39 for 2 after 13 overs when the match ended.

Ludhiana, who had won against Jalandhar and drew with Amritsar and now beat Minor District on the basis of their first innings lead, entered the semifinals. Ludhiana will play against Mohali in the semifinal scheduled to be held from September 11 to 14 at Mohali.

Ludhiana, September 9
Students of Nankana Sahib Public Senior Secondary School, Kila Raipur, won two titles in the Kila Raipur Zonal Inter-School Hockey Tournament organised by the Education Department at the Government Senior Secondary School ground, Kila Raipur.

In the u-17 years final, Nankana Sahib School prevailed over Guru Hargobind Senior Secondary School, Bahadurgarh, 1-0. The all-important goal was scored by Amandeep. Government Senior Secondary School, Kila Raipur, secured the third position.

In the u-19 final, Nankana Sahib School lads pipped Guru Hargobind Government Senior Secondary School, Bahadurgarh, 3-2. Amarjeet, Jagdeep and Baljinder scored one goal each for the winners.

Guru Hargobind Government Senior Secondary School, Bahadurgarh outplayed Nankana Sahib School, Kila Raipur, to win the title in the u-14 years section while Government Senior Secondary School, Kila Raipur, finished third.

Ludhiana, September 9
Current Punjab champion, Nirdosh, clinched two titles in the 18th Prithipal Singh Memorial Open Table Tennis Tournament which concluded at Punjab Agricultural University here today. She won top honours in the junior girl’s section as well as women’s section.

In the junior girl’s section, Nirdosh, student of Bhartiya Vidya Mandir School beat Kirti Aggarwal 11-7, 11-4 and 11-8 to bag the title. In the women’s final, she got the better of Kirti 11-7, 11-6 and 11-9.

In the cadet boy’s final, Abhaydeep Singh outclassed Jashandeep Singh 11-8, 11-9 and 11-7 to emerge champion while in the girl’s section, Himani outnumbered Meghul Bansal 11-9, 11-8 and 11-7.

In the sub-junior section, Kritika and Sidharath came out triumphant in the boy’s and girl’s sections, respectively. Kritika defeated Anmol 11-6, 11-8 and 11-9 while Sidharath outplayed Shubham 11-8, 11-4 and 11-7.

In the men's section, Dharminder beat Manpreet 11-3, 9-11, 11-8, 11-7 and 11-9 to win the title while in the junior boy's section, Manpreet Singh outclassed Bhavuk 11-9, 11-7 and 11-6 to annex the title.

Former hockey Olympian, Hardeep Singh Grewal “Neeta” gave away the prizes to the position holders. Ramandeep Singh Grewal, former captain of the Indian hockey team and deputy director, sports, Punjab Agricultural University, were also present at the prize distribution function.